make sure you're getting all the vitamins you need. deficiencies can make anxiety worse. and there's nothing bad about seeing a doctor -- you can be treated for anxiety problems other than panic attacks. I'm on antidepressants for my obsessive anxiety and doing much better.

I am such a sicko... My first thought is to rig up a counter surprise.

when your friend takes you from drinks to the party say your last drink is really going to your head and act suuuuuuuuuuuper drunk when you come in, slur something incomprehensible, and "pass out" on the floor. Then when they come to your side roll over clear-eyed and yell DOUBLE SURPRISE!!!!!

like, for each person, imagine you have some span of ability for running (or whatever, really) and if you were overweight you'd be not so great, and if you were emaciated you'd be not so great, and somewhere in the middle is your personal peak which combines health and strength with being lightweight and agile. I personally am a faster runner when I have less ass to cart around with me.

So it's up to each person to find their personal peak physique (if they want to optimize their ability). Then of course, each person's peak performance is different. Some people have the potential to be world-class athletes if they maximize their ability. Other people, for various reasons, are just not built to be elite athletes.

So how you stack up to someone else is a combination of what the (predetermined) best possible you is, and how close to that ideal you are (a combination of finding the right physique, working on your form, hydration and nutrition, and training).

Everybody here has pretty much the right idea (except one guy who i think wrote his quote backwards accidentally). Bottom line, don't compare yourself to others. Make you a you you love (hopefully including many more qualities than just body image), admire others for their strengths, and live a happy life. Easier said than done, so get crackin!

i like the jergens one soooo much. i tried a fake tanner once, and it was awful. doing it gradually means that you're not going to have, say, a strip on the back of your thigh where you missed putting it on that's a telltale white stripe. yuck.

also, i'm super pale, so if it starts looking too fakey i can start using it every other day instead of every day. i've been using it all summer and it's my new lover.

How can you not know what that means? It's when he comes. Yes, condoms are pretty effective. They're also the only way of protecting against STDs. The advice that they aren't effective is just rubbish from the abstinence-til-marriage campaign.

the scare quotes. they scare me. i know what ejaculating is... but her boyfriend "ejaculates"

oh my lordy girl, please. go wear your suit and have fun at the beach. if it makes you feel better, get the advice of a good friend. a bit of good self tanner makes you look just as better as dropping 5 does, anyway (i like the hard-to-mess-up jergens natural glow, the one you put on every day like lotion and eventually get a tan)*.

my bf and i both agree that the cute girls at the beach are the ones who don't seem to be thinking about their bodies, because they are enjoying themselves playing in the water or playing catch or sports, talking or reading with their friends instead of sunning like a centerfold or (obv) visually fretting about their rolls (real or imagined) and trying to sit so their stomach will look the flattest.

Oh yeah, and also cute are the ones with fantastic ta-tas. Sigh... a great attitude will get you so many things in life, but certain others still only come with god's permission... Have fun on vaca!!!

Cordie

*sorry if you're un-pale... no profile pic, and i feel like my black/asian/latina friends never worry about swimming suits like my white/pasty white/extra pasty white friends do, especially not if they have your height/weight...

Alcohol does not make you retain water. Alcohol inhibits ADH (antidiuretic hormone) which normally acts to make your kidneys keep sodium and water in your system when your blood volume is low. So when ADH is inhibited, you pee a lot and actually lose a lot of h2o from your system.

nice work lab partner. here's something cool you might not also know ---

vasopressin (other name for adh) rebounds when it is suppressed (the body releases more of it into the blood), so during hangover you have even more of this hormone in your bloodstream than normal (hence the water retention). high concentrations of vasopressin affect not only urine concentration in the kidneys, but blood pressure as well. this increase in blood pressure caused by increase (rebound) concentrations of vasopressin causes... BINGO, the hangover headache. neat, huh?

Each year, 2 out of 100 women whose partners use condoms will become pregnant if they always use condoms correctly.

Each year, 15 out of 100 women whose partners use condoms will become pregnant if they don't always use condoms correctly.

The problem with statistics is that we don't know how many times said couples had sex during that one year period. Those 2 or 15 women who became pregnant may have had twice as many sexual encounters as those who didn't.

they are probably actually expressing risk ratios in a way that does not scare off people who are bad at statistics/number comprehension. meaning, i'm sure they corrected for amount of sex in some way and the group risks are directly comparable.